By the time the ambulance pulled up twenty minutes later, along with two bright-yellow surf rescue vehicles, Luca had organized his volunteers to form a human chain from the bottom of the staircase to the base of the low jutting cliff that connected to the Sphinx Rock. They were standing in water up to their waists, with their arms hooked together against the waves that continued to lap and crash around them.

As we watched, I had Jed on one side, squeezing my hand, and Sam on my other side, burrowing his face into my shoulder while Aidan gently rubbed his back in comfort.

The paramedics stayed up top while three lifeguards barreled down the stairs. We watched as they pulled themselves along the human chain—they grasped at shoulders and waists to slug through the rising tide until they got to Luca at the end of the chain. And then those lifeguards linked arms with him and each other until the last one—a young man wearing a wetsuit—managed to scramble up the craggy rocks and walk, then crawl, along the back of the Sphinx to Merjeme.

By then, Penny had arrived in the police car. A woman sprang out of the front passenger seat and raced to the railing, and a paramedic had to hold her back from going farther. I recognized her as Merjeme and Arta’s mother.

The lifeguard had Merjeme on his back and was crawling along the slippery Sphinx and connecting up with the human chain, which slowly started coiling back toward the staircase.

I could hear Merjeme’s mom—her mëma—whimpering as she watched all those people pull one another along, and her little girl clinging to the rescuer’s back. The waves swallowed her legs, and her arms looked so tight around the lifeguard’s neck, I wondered how Merjeme wasn’t choking him.

Click click click click click.

I looked around and saw a tall man close to the top of the staircase. He had one of those fancy black cameras with a long lens pointing down at the scene and was taking pictures of all those people strung out along the backshore to save Merjeme.

When the first of the human chain came up the stairs, the clicking got louder and quicker—the man took pictures of the paramedics and Penny patting people on the back and offering them foil thermal blankets.

And then a huge cheer went up and the crowd surged nearer to the top of the stairs to watch as Luca staggered up, followed by the three lifeguards, including the one with Merjeme on his back.

The photographer went into overdrive, running around as everyone clamored to pat Luca and the lifeguards on their shoulders, shake their hands, and keep clapping.

It was Luca who started bellowing again. “Get back! GET BACK! LET THEM THROUGH!” He threw his arms out, clearing the way for the paramedics.